Happy Friday: Ladies’ Night Wrap-Up

Hope everyone’s having a happy Friday.

Our ladies’s night out was a success in my opinion, including dinner, pool and a couple of rounds of skeeball.

If that can’t be considered a good time, I don’t know what can.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Getting Good at Being Bad

I had dinner last night with a fellow teammate, and she had a pretty good point: when it comes to Jiu jitsu, in the beginning especially you have to “be good at sucking”.

She’s not the only one to admit this, and I have to agree with them. It’s a sport that’s designed in some ways to be frustrating: it takes literally twice as long to earn a black belt as opposed to other sports, you work and work and improve, but let’s face it there are others who have been doing the sport for longer than you have and they have been improving as well. You are submitted, swept time and time again even when you think (or know) you are doing everything right.

And that is where patience comes into play, maybe a little stubbornness and a good dose of humility. It’s through those losses we see our weaknesses and improve: if you aren’t willing to get through the frustrating beginning stages and “get good at sucking” then your Jiu jitsu journey will be that much more difficult.

But, the good news is you don’t suck forever, contrary to how you may feel sometimes. Continue to drill, continue to train, and keep essentially continue to believe you are putting in the work which will eventually pay off.

The Importance of Having Women In Jiu Jitsu

While I don’t exactly agree with the tactics used in order to get them to join, I do believe it’s pretty crucial for academies to encourage women to train in jiu jitsu.

Actually, I feel like you need to have a good mix of people in general for a successful academy. But women are important to have training I feel for the following reasons:

1. It’s an opportunity to see the essence of jiu jitsu- watching a smaller, presumably weaker person against a heavier opponent. it also should force force those who train with women to be more technical. That’s what we’re all told, right? All of this was created with the smaller, weaker person in mind- technique over strength? Well now students have a chance to see these principles in motion, and better yet an opportunity to become more technical themselves. Granted, that’s not always the case: I’ve trained with plenty of girls who would much prefer to smash and use strength, but as it’s been pointed out, due to their size and muscle composition more often than not women are forced to be more technical.

2. I’m sure this is going to win me no favors in the jiu jitsu community and I hate to play into stereotypes, but we’re all adults here so I’m just going to say it: I feel like when you see a woman in an academy, or multiple women there is an image then that the academy is one that can be accepting of all types of men and women, a place of respect and a (somewhat) willingness to be accommodating. While I will be the first to admit that not all that glitters is gold and looks can definitely be deceiving, but let’s say you are Mr. Joe Average, wife, two kids, 9-5 job: you want to get fit and you abhor the idea of running on a treadmill. You hear about this thing called jiu jitsu and want to give it a try- what academy would you, a newbie, be more willing to attend? One with a bunch of 6 foot, 200+ pound dudes or the academy down the street that may have those huge dudes but also a couple of chicks in the mix? Personally as a woman I would go for the latter. I would think many guys would make the same choice, and not for creepy reasons. You’ll have people who would opt for the first academy, but I feel that is such a smaller group of people and really gives you a narrow customer base to work with.

3. And let’s be real, it’s better for the school owner’s profit margin- it makes absolutely no sense to ignore half of your potential customer base, in relation to the previous point. As much as we all love the sport, for many it’s also their livelihood. Again, there are some dudes who would be totally into the “boys club” sort of MMA/jiu jitsu gym, but that’s such a smaller pool of people to work with, you’re alienating potential customers and that’s money you are essentially letting walk out of the door.

So, in reference to the beginning, why don’t I agree with gym fees being waived, or discounts being given to women to take Jiu jitsu classes? Personally I don’t think it’s necessary- maybe i’m just nutty (just a little) but to me it shows a lack of faith from the instructor that they can impart that love and same amount of passion for the sport as they can to their male students. If the program is good, if the atmosphere and culture make women feel respected and welcome, it should stand on its own. At most, if the instructor is that worried about women rolling with guys he should sit them down for a talk and go over appropriate conduct when rolling with women.

And also in total honesty, even if academies do everything right, some women won’t stay, just like guys quit Jiu jitsu. It happens- the academy may be doing everything right and it’s just a scheduling conflict, or life events that keep someone, male or female from continuing in the sport. But, with a respectful, positive atmosphere I really feel academies can invite, and keep women in their Jiu jitsu programs, which is beneficial for the academy and sport as a whole.

BJJ and Spatial Awareness

Ok, I have a request, if you all don’t mind: this is more of a pet peeve/rant, so just bear with me for a moment

I imagine this happens in every academy, and it’s definitely not a new concept, but when several sets if partners are training at the same time, sometimes set will get to a point where they will roll perilously close to one another, and will occasionally run into one another.

It happens, and I know it’s hard to control sometimes but please just be aware of the sets going on around you. I know it’s hard, and i’m guilty of almost (and sometimes literally) rolling on top of people as well sometimes, but if you can think of it just be mindful. If there’s a question of who needs to move, we have the policy “rank has right of way”: if this is also a policy at your academy, note where your higher ranks have started so you’re not surprised when one is suddenly next to you. Hopefully if everyone stays aware, everyone can spend more time training, less time scootching around and everyone stays relatively safe from an accidental hand or foot shooting out and hitting them. Yay!

For a harmonious training space, please keep this in mind. Thank you.

How does your academy deal with sets that run too closely together, especially academies with smaller training spaces?

Jiu Jitsu: Give New Techniques a Try

So, can we come to an agreement, my fellow jitsukas? A promise between you and me.

See, I found this image on the Internet a while ago:

And let’s be honest, we’re all guilty of it. We look at a technique that an instructor shows and we’re pretty sure there’s no way we can complete it, for whatever reason: our arms are too long, our legs too stubby, we’ll break our necks and die some horrible death…

Ok, maybe not that drastic, but still.

(Most) of it all is all mental though, so I purpose, especially when it comes to a new Jiu jitsu technique, let’s get rid of the bottom two steps, at the very least. It may not be the technique for you, but you do at least need a working comprehension of how it works, if nothing else to defend against it.

And who knows, what might look impossible may be fun and just what you were looking for to improve your game. But, you’ll never know until you give an honest attempt the technique. Wanting to do it would certainly help, but I’m not looking for miracles here. I just want you to keep an open mind when you see a move that either looks impossible, or something that you’re not so sure you’ll enjoy and give it a try: who knows, it just might become your thing.

Blue belt Promotions at the Gym

Congratulations to our guys who got stripes and our two new blue belts, Justin and John- great job, guys!

Jiu Jitsu and Contact Lenses

So, I’ll just cut to the chase, while training last night I accidentally got kicked in the eye and it knocked my contact lens. Luckily I was able to catch it before it hit the floor, and we have contact solution in our first aid kit, but for anyone who wears contacts while training you what want to think about getting one if those small travel size bottles of multi-purpose solution. To be perfectly honest I’m not sure the active, disinfecting ingredient in the solution is strong enough to kill whatever is possibly on the floor, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

Just a tip from your friendly four-eyed Jiu jitsuka.

Some people have suggested rolling without glasses or contacts: my eyesight is bad enough that I am pretty sure that would lead to such a massive headache that I would just want to crawl into a hole and die, so at least personally that’s out. I just put up with it, and expect that there’s a good chance one will fall out (it’s usually the one for the right eye).

For other vision impaired Jiu jitsu players, what do you guys do? Just put up with the risk of your contacts falling out? Wear glasses to class and put them off to the side before training?

Let me know!

New York Open 2013 Results

Our guys fought hard, a couple came away with medals, a couple got banged up and one got head butted in the nose. :-/ But, among our competitors was Maggie’s dad, mike: go Mike!

The only brown belt females that fought were in the masters and registration closed before I could attempt to be the youngest master’s division competitor at the tournament. I don’t know: I just didn’t see the tournament coordinators bending the rules for an adult to fight masters AND after the tournament’s registration had closed- but I did have a chance to chat with Jen Flannery and we talked about coordinating registration for future tournaments. I imagine this will turn into something like a phone tree, but, you know…not.

Other than that, I just checked the tournament results and the top teams were Alliance at 309 points, Renzo Gracie at 212 and Gracie Barra at 109. For anyone who’s interested in that sort of thing.

Oh, and can someone solve this for me? There is a brown belt Gracie Barra guy who has fantastic hair. I see him at tournaments all the time, and it just never seems the appropriate venue to compliment a dude’s hair. Anyone have any idea?

UPDATE: mystery solved. It’s AJ Agazarm. Apparently he’s making all the right moves on the Jiu jitsu mat, and wherever he buys his styling products. Trust me, as someone with long curly hair, it’s not easy to find the right hair stuff.

Ok, I think I’m done talking about hair.

Also, while we’re at it, the hippy-Jesus guy who is always at the west coast Jiu jitsu tournaments, if anyone knows his name as well. I feel like I should know that guy’s actual name, and stop referring to him as “Hippy Jesus”.

“Is This [Protein Shake] For Women?”

On my way home after our competition team training, I stopped by my local 7-11 and grabbed a protein shake- I forget the name of it, but it had about 50 grams of protein in it, and a Starbucks double shot to mix together for a late, quick lunch. Not one my finest culinary moments or healthiest meals to date, but someone can scold me about that later.

Anyway, I was at the front counter when the cashier girl looked at my purchased and asked “is that for women?”

I stared at her for a second; at that moment I really had no idea what she was talking about.

“What?”

In response she pointed to the protein shake and repeated her question.

“It’s protein,” I said, “it’s for everyone.”
I could win crowds over with my eloquence y’all, I just know it.

Her response went roughly like this: “Oh, I thought it was for guys, like that like that muscle…”

“Muscle milk? That’s for everyone too. Everyone needs protein.”

She proceeded to tell me how she had been drinking some drink Special K had been putting out- which I guess I could understand her view point: I imagine the Special K had what could be perceived as more feminine packaging for their product, where what I was purchasing had more of a masculine font to it. I didn’t want to go on some sort of tangent and drill her about what her fitness and life goals were, but there is one thing she can be sure of: there’s no such thing as a “dude only” protein shake. As far as I know there isn’t, at least.

Google+ Clark Gracie Seminar Review

 

Due to a series of events, I wasn’t able to go to class, BUT I did have the opportunity to watch the Clark Gracie seminar on Google +

Before viewing I hoped my reaction would be a whole lot of this:

…That’s an impressed and intrigued look, btw. Hooray for webcams! 

and very little this:

Definitely not impressed. 

For the most part the webinar succeeded: the “Google Hangout” was a little delayed, and the interview bit in the beginning was a little long, as it took up nearly half of the seminar. It wasn’t that the conversation wasn’t interesting: truth be told I know very little of Clark Gracie, but I am also aware how sometimes a technique can take some time to describe.

The moves looked fun, but as someone who needs to watch and then do a particular technique to truly understand, that’s really all it was, fun. It looks like it’s going to become a regular thing with Graciemag, so if you have Google+ account and some free time on your hands on a Wednesday, I would say check out one of them.

In the meantime if anyone needs me, I’ll be in the Google+ science community, reading articles and geeking out. Oh yeah!